(This may have been the filming location for "Icon" -- the city portion. Picture at the site.)

Grow-op found in attic of Riverview building
By Janis CleughThe Tri-City News

Film crews were allowed to start shooting again at Coquitlam's Riverview Hospital yesterday (Tuesday) after a pot farm was found in one of the buildings last week.

B.C. Building Corporation, which manages the hospital site, said about 500 marijuana plants were found last Saturday in the attic of the Crease Unit during a routine security check.

In a news release, Coquitlam RCMP described the pot farm as "a large and sophisticated marijuana grow operation."

The 55-year-old Crease Unit is a brown and tan brick building that fronts Lougheed Highway near Pitt River Road and is often used as a film set for movies and television shows. Since May, Stargate-SG1, Edison, Proof of the Man, The Condemned, Valentine's Day and True Calling have been filmed at the Crease Unit. In the past, the TV programs Millennium, The X-Files and The Cold Squad also have been shot in the building.

"They're filming all the time there," said Denis Racine, BCBC's communications director. "Every day of the year, there are films booked there, some for a week, some for three weeks."

On average, it costs production companies $1,000 a day to lease the Crease Unit, he said.

Racine did not know the name of the company or the movie that was to start filming yesterday, but he said it had rented the space until Sept. 4. The building was re-opened Tuesday after Coquitlam RCMP completed its investigation.

Racine said Paladin Security is contracted to patrol Riverview 24 hours a day and inspects the interior of the buildings every two weeks but "this is really in a remote location," he added.

A Riverview spokesperson said the hospital had no involvement in the pot farm. "The patients are being cared for and this had nothing to do with Riverview or its operations," she said.

About 500 patients receive care at the mental hospital in four main buildings. There have been no patients at the Crease Unit for 12 years.